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While hot seating a friend I noticed that she button spams while grappling a Survivor. It doesn't change the Special Infected animation at all but she swears that it does more damage. In particular she thinks the Jockey is still able to attack while riding. I'm inclined to think that the game inflicts maximal damage irregardless of what your doing once your SI has started to grapple.

So what the real story?
Does button spamming increase the damage delt by a special infected?
Anything official?

Note: Grappling Special Infected

  • Charger
  • Smoker
  • Jockey
  • Hunter
share|improve this question
You missed "Hunter" in the grappling list. – user2974 Dec 22 '10 at 5:32
2  
+1 for the "myths" tag :) – Bora Dec 22 '10 at 13:03
@Powerlord: fixed it. – deft_code Dec 22 '10 at 15:47
1  
It sounds like people who say that holding "down and b" when you throw a Poke Ball means you are more likely to catch that particular Pokemon. Hehe. – getthatcrate Jan 3 '11 at 13:03

2 Answers

up vote 8 down vote accepted

Spamming any buttons has no effect on the damage dealt.

Once you connect with an attack as a special infected, you lose control (for the most part) of what you're doing and continue on mindlessly. This is true for the Charger, Smoker, and Hunter. The Jockey loses the ability to deal damage by clicking (although still does damage over time), but can still steer the survivor around.

If you are knocked off (except as Charger, since you can't be), you stumble back and then can attack normally again.

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1  
A Charger can be knocked off by something that makes him stumble, such as a boomer explosion. – ILMTitan Dec 22 '10 at 16:37
2  
Also note that if a charger is knocked off by a boomer explosion, the charger's charge is instantly recharged. – Alex Beardsley Dec 22 '10 at 19:20
up vote 7 down vote

No. Repeatedly pressing the attack buttons does not inflict additional damage when you have an incapacitated survivor.

However, it can be beneficial to repeatedly press the secondary attack button to claw a survivor (as any special infected, sans Tank), as it is difficult to know the exact timing between one attack and the next. For example, as a Hunter, if you have a survivor pinned (or grappled, as stated in your question) and you are pushed off them with a melee attack, immediately begin spamming your secondary attack to get off a few scratches before you are killed. It will not increase the damage dealt to the survivor in terms of damage per second, but it will allow you to perform successive attacks as quickly as possible for maximal damage.

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it does otherwise? how so? – Bora Dec 22 '10 at 13:02
@Bora I've updated my answer to give an example of when it's a good idea to spam your secondary attack. – cowgod Dec 22 '10 at 16:44
This update is still a bit vague. Clearly you mean while you don't have the character grappled, yes? – StrixVaria Dec 22 '10 at 17:13
@StrixVaria Updated again. Hopefully my point is easily understood now. – cowgod Dec 22 '10 at 18:58

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